The Eastern women’s tennis team will enter the Ohio Valley Conference tournament as the No. 5 seed, taking on the No. 4 seed Austin Peay. The first round match will start at 2 p.m. Friday in Nashville, Tenn.

Tournament play in the OVC is slightly changed from regular season play, with doubles competition, played as one decision, is first, but when either team records its fourth point the match is complete.

In the Panthers’ last meeting with Austin Peay, they feel by a score of 2-5 on the road to the Governors. In the March 27 match-up, sophomore Jennifer Kim was the only one to come away with a win, taking down Austin Peay’s Vanessa Tavarez.

The team faired slightly better in doubles play, with sophomore Janelle Prisner and junior Merritt Whitley earning a victory, as well as freshman Sephora Boulbahaiem and Kristen Laird also getting a win.

Likely to square off again will be Prisner and Austin Peay’s Vanja Tomic. Tomic and Prisner, who were each recently named to the All-OVC first team, competed in the two teams’ previous match-up, with Tomic winning.

Whitley, along with Prisner, was also named to the All-OVC first team.

Austin Peay head coach Malik Tabet said his team’s previous win against Eastern will help it this time around.

“We had a good result against Eastern Illinois in the season,” Tabet said, in a press release. “The players are ready for the challenge again and looking forward to the match. We have to prepare to face a talented team. As young as we are, we have to be ready to play tough tennis. We’ve got a message to send to the conference and it starts Friday.”

The Governors finished regular season play with a record of 8-14, while the Panthers finished at 9-10.

The Governors are led by Tomic and freshman Alison Carre, also a first team All-OVC selection. Tomic holds a record of 7-1 against conference opponents, while Carre is 8-1.

The winner of the match between Eastern and Austin Peay will take on No. 1 seed Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m. On Saturday. In other opening round action, No. 3 seed Murray State will take on No. 6 seed Morehead State, with the winner going on to play No. 2 seed Tennessee-Martin.

The championship match will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].